There are more ways to carry a snub on your ankle than I suspect you realize. Notable because I suspect you wouldn’t believe folks are carrying them in those positions. The four basic carry modes are simple. Right/left ankle either inside/outside position. But have you considered the butt-forward, inside strong-leg carry from the Maffei counter-ground fighter program? A few minutes in a ground fight will make you a believe. Or the muzzle-up, inside weak-leg JKD trainer Imada system? From a kneeling position it is faster than anything or anyone (I know) else’s draw, epically fron the kneeling position and when the pant leg has not been lifted enough to clear the top of the holstered weapon. I note just these two unconventional carry positions to suggest that a lot of folks have put their craftiness into ankle carry. Over the years I have attended a number of shooting course where the ankle carry and its access have been addressed. Ankle holster access is always a challenge. Some instructors limit its use to the seated position, other suggest a partial kneeling, some suggest the secret is the right or the left leg carry, or the right foot or left foot pre-draw step out. Still others claim the magic is on the pant leg grab. One instructor advises grabbing the pant leg above, below, to the right, left, or at the knee. And even if some, most, or all of these directions were “the one true way” they don’t take into consideration the w-i-d-e verity of body shapes and general conditioning of the many shooters who either need or choose the ankle carry. Then there is the extreme measure some old time police training text recommend. Street Survival (if I remember correctly) suggest the old time cop trick of opening up the seam on the pants close to the gun and replacing it with a break-away strip of velcro or small shirt snaps. I myself often default to the big-and-tall men’s shop for pants two or more sizes longer in the leg. I’ve never met a tailor who hasn’t worked around a holstered weapon. Having the extra long pants hemmed to the correct length will give you a wider, almost a pseudo-bell-bottom wide cuff that will notably aid access. Also the extra long leg pangs will give you additional space in the leg near your thigh. This added inch of material will also aids considerably with the grab-the-pant leg-at-the-knee-and-lift access technique. But all this information only begs the question, isn’t there a single, simple ankle access and-draw technique or tool that can aid nearly every user of an ankle holster, without personal or equipment modifications? Let me suggest to you that there is. And it is … a pair of Sharpie markers. The nearly universal failing of the ankle holster access and draw is the lifting the pant leg and accessing the holster. Nearly every grab-the-pant-leg-at-location-X fails because as the pant leg get’s grabbed, the fingers tighten around the material and CONSTRICT the pants at that position. i.e. every draw works against its goal, and every variation on the draw is an effort to overcome this fundamental failing. The solution (I believe) is to NOT grab the leg of the pants … in a tight fist. Let me suggest to you a simple solution. Put your ankle holster on, on the leg you already carry it on, along with your training dummy gun if you have one (you should.) Now stand up put the two Sharpies in the front pant pocket on the same side as your ankle gun. Start off with nothing in the pocket except the Sharpies. Now with the fingers of one hand seize the Sharpies through the material of the pants and lift straight up. You should find that you are drawing the pant leg material notably higher than your current grab-at-the-knee system. The why should be self explanatory. You are not tighten a tourniquet around your pant leg while you are fighting to lift the material. For a higher pant cuff lift, try repeating the drill but draw the Sharpies up in a brisk Z-movement. i.e on the lift shift the Sharpies in toward the groin then while still lifting shift again to the outside and away from the groin. This should give you even greater clearance down by the ankle. And there you have it. For the price of a pair of Sharpies you have better, faster, more reliable access to your ankle gun. You can of course always substitute the two Sharpies for a similar tool that better fits your lifestyle, but I have never found a more convenient ankle gun access aid that is universally available. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts. Or if you have any question on some of the nuances involver in the above directions, please send over your questions. I’m hopeful that you will find the above information as useful a tip as I do. Only please remember to remove the pens before sending them to your wife to launder each week. One wife’s irritation over the occasional inked pants is already more than my fair share. And as always, regarding any suggestions I offer, I could be wrong. Yours, Michael de Bethencourt (Borrowed photos)
